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IPFS News Link • Politics

Five takeaways from the GOP debate

• http://www.politico.com

A Republican debate without Donald Trump is like a fern bar without a bouncer.

Without enforcer Trump around to make everybody stutter and flinch, all those nice guys in carefully pressed dress shirts were free to mouth off and pick fights with one another. While the punches drew less blood, the debate had an air of freedom with the oft-bullied likes of Rand Paul and Jeb Bush liberated from the oppressive presence of the party's frontrunner.

The ratings for these GOP Trump-fests have been steadily slipping, so it will interesting to see if Trump's absence decreased or enhanced viewership – and whether or not the unobstructed view of the other candidates solidified or undermined his position. With that in mind, here are five takeaways.

Cruz: Why is everybody always picking on me? Trump claimed that FOX was rude and biased against him (absolutely nobody apart from the Donald faithful bought that), so, yeah, chuck the debate. But he had plenty of tactical reasons to ditch the madding crowd. First, if the debate ratings dip (as they would likely have done even if he was onstage) he gets to chalk it up to his absence. But the real reason he skipped out was to create a circular GOP firing squad – with Ted Cruz at the center. And it worked.

The other candidates, no dummies, knew what Trump was up to – but they had plenty of incentive to cut the Texas Tea Party hero down to size, and they whacked Cruz early and often, especially on immigration and his annoying habit (to them) of demeaning the conservative credentials of any Republican who opposed him. Rand Paul was particularly cutting, pointing out Cruz's support for a comprehensive immigration reform "compromise" – before hardening his position to oppose anything that smacked of amnesty. "What is particularly insulting, though, is that he is the king of saying, 'you're for amnesty,'" Paul said. "Everybody's for amnesty except for Ted Cruz. But it's a falseness, and that's an authenticity problem."

Cruz responded to the attacks, at times, by whining. And unlike Trump, he let the FOX moderating team – including Chris Wallace -- best him in several testy exchanges. "Chris, I would note that the last four questions have been, Rand, please attack Ted. Marco, please attack Ted. Chris, please attack Ted. Jeb, please attack Ted," he complained to Wallace – who shock back with, "It is a debate, sir."

Donald Trump raised million for veterans

Donald Trump raised million for veterans

Then, Cruz, unconvincingly threatened to pull a Trump. "Gosh, if you guys ask one more mean question I may have to leave the stage," he said. He may have meant it tongue-and-cheek, but it came off as petulant.

It was the worst possible time – on the eve of the deadlocked Iowa caucuses – for Cruz to stumble, and Trump dug the pothole.

Rand Paul, reanimated. The Kentucky libertarian, in days of yore regarded as the most interesting Republican in the race, has disappeared almost entirely from the presidential political consciousness – and his low polling earned him ejection from the main debate stage. Granted readmission in Iowa, he made the most of it: He spoke slowly – and seemed to benefit most from Trump's absence – to launch a series of razor-sharp attacks on the character of Cruz and Rubio. And freed from the constraints of actually running to win, he reverted back to his heartfelt and idiosyncratic brand of Republicanism, speaking passionately about issues that almost never reach the GOP debate stage: Poverty, discrimination against blacks, urban economic development, the evils of civil forfeiture and mandatory federal drug sentences.

"I… think the war on drugs has disproportionately affected our African-American community, and what we need to do is make sure that the war on drugs is equal protection under the law and that we don't unfairly incarcerate another generation of young African-American males," he said.

Chris Christie just won't answer a question. It's uncanny. The bellicose New Jersey governor, who is staking all on a decent showing in New Hampshire, simply wouldn't address anything the moderators threw at him – turning every answer into a rousing am-I-right-guys attack on the easiest of targets, Hillary Clinton.

When Megyn Kelly asked Christie about entitlement reform – the single most important element of federal deficit reduction ("Can you name even one thing that the federal government does now that it should not do at all?" she asked) – he hit a bumper-sticker talking point that had zilch to do with entitlement reform. "How about one that I've done in New Jersey for the last six years -- that's get rid of Planned Parenthood funding from the United States of America," he intoned to applause.


 

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